BIBLICAL ARCI-IAEOLOGIST

SOF-

Published By
The American Schools of Oriental Research
(Jerusalem and Baghdad)
Drawer 93A, Yale Station, New Haven, Conn.

VOL. XIV December, 1951 No. 4

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Fig. 1. ARCHAIC TEMPLE OF APOLLO (?), built about 550 B. C. with Acrocorinth in
the background.

CONTENTS
Corinth: Center of St. Paul's Missionary Work in Greece ................ 78
78 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
The Biblical Archaeologist is published quarterly (Fcbruary, May, September, December)
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CORINTH
Center of St. Paul's Missionary Work
in Greece
Oscar Broneer
University of Chicago

When the Apostle Paul first came to Greece nineteen centuries ago
to plant the Christian religion on European soil, he visited several of the
leading cities, among them Athens, the center of pagan culture and reli-
gion. His stay in Athens was of short duration. His sermon to the vener-
able Council of Areopagites was beautiful and learned, but it did not
bring many converts to Christianity. He was looking for a suitable place
in which to lay a permanent foundation for the Christian Church among
the Greeks. As he chose Corinth for this purpose he determined never
again to try to impress his hearers with his learning. He would settle
down as a humble craftsman, earning his living with the work of his
hands and preaching a simple message of the crucified Christ (I Cor.
2:1-4). When his own countrymen rejected his testimony he shook his
garments in token of innocence and declared that he would thenceforth
turn his attention to the Gentiles (Acts 18:6).
His choice of Corinth as a testing ground for the new religion proved
to be a happy one. Corinth was at that time a comparatively new city.
Less than a hundred years before the arrival of St. Paul a Roman colony
had been planted, and the new city could be expected to be more re-
ceptive to novel religious beliefs than a place like Athens with her un-
broken cultural history of several thousand years. Perhaps even more
important was the fact that many visitors came to the great cosmopolitan
city on the Isthmus, and some of his most faithful followers in his future
missionary work were, like the apostle himself, foreigners in the city.
The geographical position of Corinth was ideal for St. Paul's pur-
pose. It dominated the neck of land that joined the southern part of the
Greek peninsula with the mainland, and since the trade of the Roman
Empire was carried overland from sea to sea, Corinth controlled the traffic
 1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 79

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Fig. 2. CORINTH IN THE SECOND CENTURY A. D. This plan of the central area and
theater district is based upon the results of excavations carried on since 1896.

The photographs appearing in this article are, with one exception, from the photographic
files of the American School of Classical Studies; that in figure 1 was made by D. A. Harissiadis.
80 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
between the east and the west. Through its two harbors, Cenchreae on
the east side of the Isthmus and Lechaeum on the west, flowed the com-
merce of the world. The Corinthians not only were in a position to levy
a toll on this merchandise, but had unlimited opportunity to dispose of
their own products in exchange for foreign goods. All these factors
tended to enrich the city and to attract the most ambitious and enterpris-
ing people from the whole empire.
But for all its newness Corinth was a city with a long and illustrious
past. True, the Roman colony was a comparatively recent establishment,
but in the more distant past the city had played a distinguished role in
the development of Greek art and culture. Archaeological excavations
have revealed that the Corinthia was one of the first regions of Greece
to be inhabited. The earliest settlers, who arrived as far back as the
fourth millennium B. C., were probably attracted to this spot by the
abundance of water and the protection offered by the isolated mountain
in the rear. Both the city fountain, which later received the name Peirene,
and the mountain were at an early period woven into the mythological
fabric of the Corinthian people. After the first settlers' arrival new con-
tingents were added, some coming down from the north, others arriving
by sea across the Aegean. Some newcomers about 3000 B. C. brought
the knowledge of metals and other useful arts, and the community grew
in number and extent as more of the Grecian peninsula became inhab-
ited. If the linguists are correct in assigning the name "Korinthos"to a
to
pre-Greek, non-Indo-European language, the name which still adheres
the city has existed for some five thousand years. It was probably first
applied to the mountain, which was later called "Akrokorinthos,"for the
oldest name of the city, Ephyra, seems to be of Greek origin.

Calamity came to Corinth - and to the rest of Greece - at the end

of the third millennium B. C., when a new race of people overwhelmed
the original settlers. They may have been the vanguard of the Greek
was
people, speaking a language closely akin to Classical Greek. Corinth
now abandoned, but several smaller settlements grew up well within
2000
sight of the deserted city. For more than six centuries, from about
to 1350 B. C., no traces of occupation have been revealed on the site of
Corinth itself. In the fourteenth century a new settlement came into
existence, but the material records from the next three hundred years are
scant. In the Homeric poems "Wealthy Corinth" appears among the cities
that joined in the expedition to Troy, but it is not certain how far con-
ditions of the poet's own time have colored his description.

The city grew in size and prosperity during the Iron Age, and by the
beginning of the eighth century B. C. it had attained to great military
and commercial prominence. In the eighth and seventh centuries B. C.,
when it was ruled by the noble family of the Bacchiads, Corinth planted
1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 81
colonies in Sicily and along the eastern shore of the Adriatic. At the
same time she made rapid strides as an industrial and maritime power,
and her products became known from one end of the Mediterranean to
the other. This prosperity continued under Cypselus, who wrested the
power from the Bacchiads in 613 B. C. (others give 655 as the date of
their overthrow). Demaratus, one of the ousted Bacchiads, fled to Italy
where his son, according to tradition, became king of the Romans under
the name Tarquinius Priscus. Under Periander, the son and successor

Fig. 3. ASKLEPIEIION. Near the spring of Lerna were the dining rooms, in which the pa-
tients reclined on couches (two preserved left of center) during meals. The rooms were
heated from an open hearth in the center.

of Cypselus, Corinth attained to her greatest power, but the kingship

came to an end during the short reign of his successor, whose name
Psammeticus betrays contact with Egypt.
A decline in the city's fortunes came about the middle of the sixth
century B. C. Athens was now a powerful rival in industrial production,
and during the second half of that century the Corinthian manufacturers
tried in vain to bolster their trade by imitating the Athenian products.
Corinth fought against the Persians along with the rest of the Greeks,
and in the struggle for leadership between Athens and Sparta in the fifth
82 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
century Dorian Corinth naturally threw in her lot with the latter against
Ionian and democratic Athens. In the war that broke out between the
two powers and their allies in the time of Pericles, Corinth played the role
of instigator and she remained an implacable foe of Athens. The bitter
enmity which the Corinthians displayed had its beginning in commercial
rivalry more than a century earlier.
After Athens had been crushed at the end of the fifth century B. C.,
Corinth for a short time joined hands with her former enemy against
Sparta. After the Greeks had lost their independence in the battle of
Chaeronea in 338 B. C., Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the
Great, made Corinth the seat of the new Hellenic League, whose pro-
claimed purpose was to renew the war against Persia. Though for the
most time under foreign domination during Hellenistic times, Corinth
regained her prosperity to a marked degree. The struggle of the Greeks
to free themselves from the power of Macedon led to the intervention of
Rome and eventually to enslavement of all the Greeks. In 146 B. C.
Corinth, like Carthage in North Africa, was destroyed by the Romans,
its male population killed and its women and children sold into slavery.
For the next hundred years the city lay in ruins.
The planting of a Roman colony under Caesar on the site of the
Greek city began a new era of phenomenal growth and prosperity. Un-
der Augustus and his successors Corinth was rebuilt on the lines of a
Roman city. Some of the old buildings that had escaped demolition were
reconditioned and new buildings were erected in and around the old city
square. Corinth was in the midst of this rebirth and reconstruction when
the Apostle Paul appeared upon the scene in A. D. 51 or 52. It was then
the capital of the province of Achaia, and the seat of the Roman ad-
ministration in the south of Greece. Its official language was Latin, but
the common speech of its mixed population was probably Greek.
Its prosperity continued and probably increased under Hadrian and
the Antonines in the second century after Christ. In A. D. 267 it suffered
heavily from an attack by the Herulians, a barbarian tribe from the north;
and in the fourth century two earthquakes, in 365 and 375, damaged the
city, which was finally sacked by the Goths under Alaric in 395. The
Emperor Justinian (A. D. 527-565) restored the fortifications around the
city and rebuilt the wall across the Isthmus. Throughout the Middle
Ages Corinth retained a place of importance as a center of trade and in-
dustry. Militarily Acrocorinth often played a decisive role in the affairs
of the Peloponnese until the war of liberation from the Turks in 1821-
1833.
Such in brief outline is the checkered history of the city which the
Apostle Paul chose to be the first permanent missionary center on the
European continent. The wisdom of his choice is apparent. In the days
1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 8;3
before regular travel service existed it was of advantage to be near a busy
trade and shipping center from which transportation was available to any
part of the Empire. He was in constant communication with the churches
by letters and personal messengers; and his two epistles to the church at
Thessalonica and his letter to the Romans were written at Corinth. The
comparatively short span of its existence as a Roman colony, still attract-
ing the bold and the venturesome from other parts of the empire; the
constant coming and going of foreigners in search of wealth or pleasure;
and the far flung business interests of its inhabitants combined to create
in Corinth an atmosphere peculiarly favorable to a new religious move-
ment.

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Fig. 4. DEDICATIONS TO ASKLEPIOS. By such gifts of baked clay the suppliants hoped
to win favor from the God of Healing and from his daughter, Goddess of Health.

Many of the cults in the city were old and well established. They
had continued to function during the century that Corinth lay in ruins,
and when the colonists arrived in 44 B. C. they restored the worship of
most of the ancient gods. In the center of the city rose the archaic temple
(Fig. 1), constructed about 550 B. C., the extant seven columns of which
are still the most prominent of the ancient remains. Even in St. Paul's
day it must have been one of the conspicuous monuments of olden times.
Not far from the temple, on the north slope of the hill, was a shrine to
Athena (Minerva) the Bridler, built to commemorate the harnessing of
Pegasus by the local hero Bellerophon when he rode out to slay the Chi-
maera. The horse was caught with the aid of Athena while he was drink-
84 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
ing from the waters of Peirene. The Pegasusmyth was so famous among
the Corinthiansthat the winged horse became a city emblem, which for
hundreds of years continued to be used as the chief device on coins of
the city. Athena was worshiped among the Corinthiansas the Horse-
Tamer, and closely connected with her cult was that of Poseidon (Nep-
tune), also a patron of equestrian sport. But Poseidon was primarily
the (godof the sea and of earthquakes,and the Corinthianshad every
reasonto placate his wrath. The Corinthiahas always been a very active
center of earthquakes,and the city has frequently been destroyed by
them. There was a shrine and a fountain dedicated to Poseidon in the
CorinthianAgora (Civic Center), but the chief cult place to this deity
was at the Isthmia,some seven miles to the east of the city.
A well-knownCorinthianlegend, made famous throughthe tragedy
of Euripides,was the story of Medea,the inhumansorceressfrom beyond
the Black Sea who murderedher own sons in orderto take vengeance on
Jason, her faithless husband and father of the children. Less than a
hundredyardsto the west of the ArchaicTemple stands a fountainhouse,
cut out of solid rock, into whose waters the Corinthianprincess Glauke,
Jason'sbride, threw herself when her body was consumed by a poisoned
robe. the gift of Medea. Nearby, at the tomb of the slain children,stood
a frightful figure of Terrorin the guise of woman; and at earlier times
annual sacrifices,apparentlyin the form of human victims, were offered
by the Corinthians.By the time of St. Paul'sarrivalthese gruesomeprac-
tices had been discontinued,but the statue existed and images of baked
clay were apparentlythrowninto the fountainin celebrationof the event.
The festival was connected with the worship of Hera (Juno) of the
Rock,whose shrinewas close to the Fountainof Glauke. A small temple
(marked C on the plan; Fig. 2) of Romandate, surroundedby a colon-
naded court, has been identifiedas the temple of Hera.
There were several sanctuaries to Apollo within the city, one of
which, the Peribolos of Apollo, consisted of a large paved court with
columns on all sides and with a colossal statue of the god in the center.
The court is located in the northeasternsection of the excavated area,
not far from the FountainPeirene. If the commonlyaccepted identifica-
tion is correct, the Archaic Temple also housed a cult of the same god,
and a marbleimage of Apollo Clariusstood somewherein the Agora.
Manyof the temples uncoveredin the excavationsare of Romancon-
struction,and the cults housed in them were probablyintroducedby the
coltmists. At the west end of the square are six small foundationssup-
porting a temple of Aphrodite-Tyche(Venus-Fortune,markedF on the
plan), a Pantheonor temple of All the Gods (G), a temple of Herakles
(H), one of Poseidon (J), one of Apollo (K), and one of Hermes (Mer-
curvy.D). There was a temple to Octavia, deified sister of the Emperor
1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 85
Augustus, and one of Jupiter Capitolinus (Zeus Koryphaios to the
Greeks). It has been suggested that the latter was the prominent Roman
building (E) a little to the west of the city center, close to the entrance
into the new Museum.
One cult place, abandoned and buried long before St. Paul's day, is
of peculiar interest to students of religion. Though nothing is known

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Fig. 5. GILDED MARBLE HEAD OF SERAPIS. The Greeks identified this Egyptian deity
with their Hades or Pluto, divine ruler of the underworld.

from ancient writers regarding the cult, it has been possible to piece to-
gether from the well preserved remains the main features of the shrine
and to deduce the probable significance of the cult. In the Agora was a
sacred fountain from which water was brought to a small apsidal temple
where it seems to have been poured over a stone altar. A plastered chan-
nel leads underground from the altar to a terrace wall thirty feet away,
where it empties into a large stone jar. Along the channel runs a rock-cut
tunnel, large enough for a man to crawl through on his hands and knees.
86 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV.
The tunnel passes underground to a point close to the altar beneath the
floor of the cult room in the temple, where it stops dead. The water chan-
nel can be reached from the tunnel. The entrance into the tunnel was
barred to the inquisitive by a double door, and a fine of eight pieces of
money was imposed on intruders.
This elaborate arrangement points to a mystery cult in which water
may have been miraculously turned into wine. It would have been quite
easy for a man initiated into the secrets of the cult to bring wine into the
tunnel and to mix it with the water that flowed from the altar into the
stone jar at the outer end of the channel. Such wine miracles, connected
with the worship of the wine-god Dionysos (Bacchus), are known from
other parts of the ancient world, but in no other case are the material
appurtenances so well preserved. The cult may have been abandoned
after the scant water supply of the Sacred Fountain gave out completely.
As early as the fourth century B. C. the fountain became buried beneath
the pavement of the Agora and remained thus until the excavators found
it fifty years ago. Even the two lion heads of bronze through which the
water flowed are preserved in their original position, and the fountain
itself is completely intact.
There were other cult places of lesser fame in different parts of the
city, and statues of gods and heroes lined streets and public squares.
Two temples situated some distance from the city center are of special
significance in the religious life of the city. At the north edge of the
plateau on which the ancient city was built and at a distance of some
two thousand feet from the Agora was a temple of Asklepios (Aescu-
lapius) the god of healing, and to his daughter Hygieia (Health) (Fig.
0 . The cult can be traced back to the sixth century B. C., but most of the
extant ruins date from the fourth. Like many other shrines the Askle-
pieion was restored by the Romans and continued to function until the
end of paganism.

Surrounding the temple of the god were several buildings designed

to serve the needs of the patients. Water played an important role in the
cures, as one may judge from an elaborate system of reservoirs and water
channels distributed over the whole area. There was also a spring called
Lerna, from which crystal clear water still flows the year around. A large
building with compartments arranged around a central court contains
several small dining rooms fitted out with an open fire place in the center
and with stone benches along the walls on which the diners consumed
their meals in Grecian comfort. In gratitude for help received - or per-
haps in anticipation of divine aid - the patients brought to the temple
terra cotta likenesses of the affected parts of the body, but only in a few
cases is the effect of the disease indicated. These thank offerings, mod-
eled with uncompromising realism and painted in natural colors, are
1951. 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 87
now on display in a special room in the museum (Fig. 4). The suppliants
at the shrine were also expected to put cash contributions into a large
stone box placed close to the entrance of the temple. In this container
the excavators found thirteen small bronze coins which the ancient ward-
ens had failed to collect. The sanctuary with its cult apparatus and
equipment for the comfort and healing of the sick provides an excellent
example of a pagan hospital. Such institutions were from the earliest
times an integral part of the religious life of the city.

Fig. 6. LECHAEUM ROAD. This imposing roadway, bordered by raised sidewalks and flanked
by marble columns, terminated at the Propylaea, the ornamental gateway that gave
entrance to, the Civic C'enter of Corinth.

Of far greater fame, however, was the temple of Aphrodite (Venus),

conspicuously situated on the topmost peak of Acrocorinth. In the leg-
ends this mountain was originally sacred to Helios, the Sun God, but was
later given to the Goddess of Beauty and Love. In her service were a
thousand female slaves, whose presence in the city gave Corinth its repu-
88 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
tation for immorality (I Cor. 6:9-20; II Cor. 12:20-21), and St. Paul
found it necessary to warn the Christians against the evil practices of the
pagans. In the name of religion these temple servants plied their trade
openly and with such success that, according to the geographer Strabo,
the city owed its prosperity to the attraction of these entertainers. The
cult image in the temple on the mountain represented Aphrodite with
the armor of Ares (Mars), using his shield as a mirror and the helmet
as a foot rest. Her cult may have originally come from the Orient, but
it was well established in Corinth as far back as the beginning of the
fifth century B. C.
Along the ascent to Acrocorinth were several smaller temples, in
some of which foreign cults were housed. There were temples of the
Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis, whom the Greeks identified with deities
in their own Pantheon. Their worship in Corinth was probably of recent
origin, introduced either in Hellenistic times or after the founding of the
Roman colony. Marble heads of Serapis have been found in the excava-
tions, and one of them still preserves part of the gold leaf which once
covered the face (Fig. 5).
Cults of foreign gods existed in most Greek cities, but Corinth, be-
cause of its large foreign population, may have been peculiarly receptive
to innovations in matters of religion. From the Acts 18:4-8 we learn that
the Jews had a synagogue in the city,' and other foreign groups had prob-
ably established temples to their native gods. Apart from material re-
mains, our knowledge of the city comes chiefly from the description of
Pausanias, who visited Corinth about A. D. 170. This indefatigable trav-
eler and antiquarian paid most attention to the ancient myths and cults;
more recent monuments and events he frequently passed over in silence.
This is partly the reason that we are less informed about the new cults
of the city than about the more ancient religious foundations.
A glance at a plan of Corinth reveals its commercial characteristics.
The approaches and the central square are lined with rows of shops.
From the Isthmia in the east and from Sicyon and Argos in the west and
south, and from the two harbors mentioned above, several roads con-
verged upon the center of the city, the best preserved of which is the
road from the Lechaeum harbor on the Corinthian Gulf (Fig. 6). It is
still a splendid roadway, paved with well fitted slabs of hard limestone.
There were raised side walks, but these were interrupted by statuary and
other public monuments. The road was closed to wheel traffic and the
rise in level toward the south was taken care of by a series of steps at
widely spaced intervals. From shady colonnades in the Corinthian order
the shops in the rear were entered. On the west side of the road the shops

1. A lintel block inscribed "Synagogue of the Hebrews" has been found in the excavations,
but the letter forms indicate a date some three or four centuries later than St. Paul's visit.
1951. 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 89

were in the nature of cellars, the walls of which supported a large public
building of the Basilica type with interior columns and a main hall, 150
feet in length. Underneath all this vast complex of Roman date are the
ruins of an earlier building, a Greek Market from the end of the fifth
century B. C. North of the Basilica a commercial building has been
partly excavated with colonnades and small shops surrounding a paved
court. An inscribed marble slab built into the late pavement of one of
the shops preserves a reference to a fish market, but it is uncertain
whether the whole building was used for the sale of a single commodity.

.......

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Fig. 7. THE AGORA. In the center foreground is the elliptical Council Chamber, and to the
right of it appears the pavement of the road to Cenchreae, the harbor from which
St. Paul reached Corinth. The columns of the Archaic Temple are seen in the dis-
tance and directly left of them, at the edge of the picture, appear the rock-cut cham-
bers of the fountain of Glauke. The Rostra is indistinctly visible to the right of
center, and beyond it the lower Agora is spread out before the visitor's eye.

The word used for market (macellum) in the Latin text is the same as the
Greek term employed in I Cor. 10:25, where the writer discusses the con-
duct to be followed by the Christians in regard to meat sacrificed to
pagan gods; and it has been suggested that the building may have been
used also for the sale of meat and could thus have been the "shambles"
that the Apostle had in mind. The building appears to have collapsed
during an earthquake in the sixth century after Christ, and its material
90 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
was re-used for the construction of a large semicircle opening toward
the road.
On the other side of the road are the remains of a large Roman bath,
and farther south is the Peribolos of Apollo, from the southwest corner
of which two stairways lead down to the court of Peirene. This ancient
fountain, which provided the chief water supply of the city, has under-
gone many alterations and complete reconstructions during its long ex-
istence. The natural spring, existing before the advent of man, was in
the sixth century B. C. made into a splendid fountain house. Extensive
tunnels toward the east and west tapped the subterranean flow of water
over a large area and conducted it to four reservoirs with a total capacity
of over 100,000 gallons. The hourly flow of water in midsummer is now
about 3,000 gallons, enough to feed three ever-flowing fountains in the
modern village.
At the south end of the Lechaeum Road, where a flight of marble
steps led to the higher level of the city square, stood an ornamental gate-
way in the form of a triumphal arch. Its roof supported two four-horse
chariots of gilded bronze, in one of which rode Helios, the Sun-God. and
in the other his son Phaethon.
Of all these buildings only foundations and scattered architectural
members remain, but with the help of these and of the description by
Pausanias we can form a fairly complete picture of the northern approach
to the city as it appeared in St. Paul's day. Even in its present state
the well-paved street, flanked by picturesque ruins of the ancient build-
ings, and seen against a backdrop of steep cliffs above the verdant slopes
of Acrocorinth, give the visitor an impression of man-made grandeur and
overpowering natural beauty.
As we pass through the gateway we find ourselves at the north edge
of the Agora, a vast plaza paved with marble and lined with public build-
ings on all sides (Fig. 7). Its great extent, about 600 feet in length and
half as much in width, is somewhat obscured by a number of individual
monuments, some of very impressive dimensions, scattered rather hap-
hazardly over the area. The Agora is furthermore divided from east to
west by a central row of buildings separating the lower area (forum
vulgare) on the north from a somewhat narrower section (forum civile)
at a higher level on the south. West of the gateway along the north edge
of the square we first encounter a highly ornate structure, the Captives
Facade, so named because figures of captive barbarians were attached
to pillars supporting the architrave of the second story. The building was
erected in the second century after Christ. Farther west are the North-
west Shops with a colonnade in front, and in the rear are the ruins of a
long stoa, which in pre-Roman times formed the northern limit of the
square. The east end of the Northwest Shops covers the ruins of the
1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 91

apsidal temple with its altar and provisions for a mystery cult (see above,
p. 85).
The building of most interest to students of the New Testament is
situated near the center of the Agora along the terrace dividing the lower
area from the higher one. This is the Bema or Rostra, an outdoor speak-
ers' stand, on which high officials would appear to harangue the public
gathered in the lower section of the square (Fig. 8). It was a sumptuous
structure, originally covered with marble, somerexquisitely carved pieces
of which testify to the richness of its decorative finish. The entrance was

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lost
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Fig. 8. THE ROSTRA. Fragments of the rich marble decoration remain from this outdoor
tribunal, before which the Apostle Paul was haled to face the Roman Governor (Acts
18:12-17).

from the rear through three openings separated by massive marble piers,
and along the side were marble benches for the dignitaries. Flanking the
Rostra at the level of the lower Agora are two waiting rooms with mosaic
floors and with marble benches on three sides. Here the individuals
bringing petitions to the magistrate would wait their turn to have their
cases presented. To the right and left of the waiting rooms were stairs
leading to the administrative section of the Agora, and rows of shops ex-
tended toward the east and west along the terrace bisecting the square.
92 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,
The Rostra is without much doubt the building in front of which the
Apostle Paul appeared before the Governor Gallio to defend himself
against his accusers (Acts 18:12-17). The term "Judgement Seat," used
in the Authorised Version of the New Testament, is a translation of the
Greek word BEMA, the equivalent of the Latin ROSTRA, which occurs
with reference to this building in an inscription found in the vicinity.
In the New Testament account we find the governor seated on the Bema,
and a crowd of Jewish zealots haling the Apostle before the magistrate,
noisily accusing him of teaching contrary to the law. The Roman pro-
consul wasted little time with the case, which had to do with matters
outside his jurisdiction and interest. After he had driven them away a
scuffle took place directly in front of the building on which the governor
was sitting, and Sosthenes, the head man of the synagogue, was beaten
by the infuriated crowd.' Some scholars believe that the scene was en-
acted in one of the law courts before the magistrate's bench. This inter-
pretation must be rejected. The mob scene described in the Acts would
hardly have been permitted within an official building of that kind. The
error arises from the ambiguity of the word Bema, which is used to de-
note any raised platform, step, or a dais, even the stage in a theater. It
is the word used by Greek writers for the famous Rostra in Rome and
for similar structures in other cities.
The public buildings along the east and south sides of the Agora
cannot all be identified with certainty. At the east end is a large build-
ing, called the "Julian Basilica" from a group of portrait statues of the
family of Augustus found among its ruins. What purpose it served is
not known. In the southeast corner of the square is a smaller building,
also of Roman date, which may have served as archives or library or
perhaps both. It was probably a donation by Babbius Philinus, a wealthy
freedman and public benefactor of Corinth.
Along the entire south side of the square ran a Doric colonnade, the
South Stoa, more than 500 feet in length, one of the largest buildings of
ancient Greece. Its construction goes back to the fourth century B. C.,
probably to the period of Philip and Alexander, who made Corinth the
capital of their Panhellenic League. In its original form the rear half of
the building was divided into thirty-three small compartments, each with
a second room in the rear. Most of these were used as wine shops and
restaurants, and the building seems to have served as the main quarters
of the celebrated entertainment business of the city. There was an elab-
orate refrigeration system with a well in each shop, connecting under-
ground with the supply channels of Peirene. Wine and victuals were
kept cool by being lowered into the wells. In the first century of our era

2. A church service attended by thousands of people is held annually on the ruins of the
Bema on June 29, the Festival of Peter and Paul.
1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 93

the taverns were demolished and ten administrative units constructed

upon their foundations. They were not all built at the same time, and
by the middle of the century, when St. Paul came to Corinth, the con-
version of the building was in progress. Two of the units can be iden-
tified with some certainty. One, in the eastern half of the South Stoa,
consists of one large room with a marble covered bench in the rear and
mosaics on the floor. The central panel depicts an athletic scene (Fig. 9).
A nude victor wearing a leafy crown and holding a palm branch, emblem
of his victory, stands before a seated figure of the goddess Eutychia
(Good Fortune), to whom he has come to render thanks for his victory.

Fig. 9. MOSAIC FLOOR FROM OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE ISTHMIAN GAMES.
The victorious athlete, palm in hand and wreathed with a crown of withered celery
(compare I Cor. 9:24-27) stands before the Goddess of Good Fortune, to whom he
renders thanks for his success.

The building was probably the Agonotheteion, office of the presidents of

the Isthmian Games.
About the middle of the South Stoa and directly opposite the Bema
a paved road entered the Agora from the south. It probably connected
with the road from the harbor at Cenchreae through which the Apostle
Paul reached Corinth. On the west side of the road is a semi-elliptical
94 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XIV,

building, which can only be a bouleutericn, the meeting place of the local
legislative body. In the rear of the stoa, to the east of the road, is a large
building which is almost a duplicate of the Julian Basilica. All these
public edifices - and there were many others - create an impression of
sumptuousness and diversity in the city's administrative organization.
At the southwest corner of the Agora, which has not yet been ex-
cavated, a paved road led from the south and continued northward
across the west end of the square past the Odeum and the Theater and
then turned west toward Sicyon. The road passes between the six small
temple foundations referred to above and the western limit of the Agora
where there was a row of twelve vaulted shops, six on either side of
a large stairway leading to a paved square in front of Temple E.
It is not the purpose of this account to describe in detail all the
monuments revealed in the excavations but rather to present an overall
picture of the vast extent and phenomenal wealth of the city that the
Roman settlers had constructed upon the ruins of the Greek era. Only
the central part of the civic section has been uncovered. Many public
buildings are still buried under the debris, which in some places reaches
a depth of more than twenty-five feet. The residential section of Corinth,
covering an area of unknown extent, is virtually untouched by the ex-
cavator's spade.
Corinth was famous both in Greek and Roman times as a center of
commercial entertainment. The Augustan poet Horace gives expression
to its fame in a translation into Latin verse of a well-known Greek
passage: Non cuivis homini contigit adire Corinthum, "It is not the privi-
lege of every man to go to Corinth."
Among the attractions of the city were two theaters, one a very large
building with a seating capacity of eighteen thousand, built in Greek
times and completely reconstructed by the Romans (Fig. 10). A paved
street descending from the south opens into a paved square on the east
side of the scene building. A re-used paving block preserves an inscrip-
tion, stating that the pavement was laid at the expense of Erastus, who
was aedile (Commissioner of Public Works). He was probably the same
Erastus who became a co-worker of St. Paul (Acts. 19:22; Rom. 16:23,
where he is called oikonomos, "chamberlain" of the city), a notable ex-
ception to the Apostle's characterization of the early Christians: "Not
many wise men after the fFesh,not many mighty, not many noble are
called" (I Cor. 1:26).
The Odeum, or Music Hall, was built toward the end of the first
century of the Christian era. Both buildings were several times rebuilt
and both were converted into arenas for gladiatorial shows. Surround-
ing the arena in the large theater was a painted frieze depicting scenes
from gladiatorial contests. Corinth could also boast the possession of
1951, 4) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 95
the only Roman amphitheater in Greece, which is located at some dis-
tance to the east of the city center.
In addition to the permanent attractions provided in these buildings
Corinth played host to the athletes and visitors at the Isthmian Games
celebrated every other year. Next to the Olympic Games, which were
held every four years, the celebrations at the Isthmia were the most
splendid and best attended of all the national festivals of Greece. Prepa-
ration for these events occupied the attention of the citizens several

III% ; i?ii Mll: ;IliiV. IN

iINIIII

Fig. 10. THE THEATER. The stuccoed wall surrounding the Arena was decorated with
paintings (no longer extant), showing Roman gladiators in combat with wild beasts.
Beneath one of the figures, an inscription in badly misspelled Greek related the story
of Androcles and the Lion.

months in advance, and when the throngs arrived to view the contests
in the Isthmian stadium the vendors and entertainers from Corinth were
on hand to reap profit from the occasion. The Apostle Paul, aware of the
impression made upon the people of Corinth by these celebrations, al-
ludes to the athletic events in language betraying an eyewitness ac-
quaintance with the contests.
Many of the passages in his First Epistle to the Corinthians show an
intimate knowledge of the people and their occupations. The Apostle's
96 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST
resolve to lead the life of a wage earner, mingling freely with citizens
and foreigners in every walk of life, was obviously paying dividend. We
gather that he had joined the procession to the Isthmia for the celebration
of the games (I Cor. 9:24-27), where he watched the runners contend
for a "corruptible crown" of victory. The term is well chosen, for the
wreath bestowed upon the winner was made of withered celery. He had
seen the boxers engaged in their cruel and often deadly sport, their
knuckles strapped with leather thongs to render the blows more effective.
Figures of speech borrowed from these engagements came readily to his
mind when writing to the Corinthians. He had observed the people
crowd to the law courts where strict, though usually fair, justice was ad-
ministered according to Roman standards, and he exhorted the Christians
to arbitrate their differences or even to suffer injustice rather than be
judged by unbelievers. He had watched the farmers plow and reap their
fields in the fertile plain below the city, and had seen the laborers hoe
up the ground around the vines and gather the ripe grapes for which
Corinth has for centuries been famous (our word "currant"is a mediaeval
corruption for Corinth). He had doubtless many times engaged shep-
herds in conversation as they drove their flocks to pasture or carried home
the milk at night, so that his words were readily understood by his read-
ers when he wrote: "Who plants a vineyard without eating any of
its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? . . .
the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope
of a share in the crop" (I Cor. 9:7-10). He felt no scruples about
eating of meat that had been sacrificed to the pagan gods and would
not have refused an invitation from his non-Christian friends to a
feast in a pagan temple (I Cor. 8:10), but would rather restrict his free-
dom than give offence to a fellow-believer of less robust convictions.
Though free, he had made himself a "servant unto all, a Jew unto the
Jews, to those without the law as without the law," and could state with-
out boasting: "I have made myself all things unto all men, that I might
by all means save some." In the pursuit of his calling Paul had made it
his practice to visit every quarter of the city and to be present at every
kind of occasion when men gathered for work or play, and he spoke to
them not as an outsider but as one of their own people. A perusal of the
ruins of ancient Corinth and of the abundant archaeological material
gathered in the museum cannot fail to add force and vividness to the
homely figures of speech with which the Apostle Paul sought to impress
his message upon his hearers."

3. The excavations at ancient Corinth have been carried on with some interruptions since
1896 by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The results have been published
in a series of volumes entitled "CORINTH: Results of the Excavations." Sixteen separately
bound parts have appeared to date. A convenient Guide to the Excavations, first published in
1928, has now appeared in its fifth edition. Excavation reports and articles on separate topics
on Corinth have been published in the American Journal of Archaeology and in Hesperia.